THE Easter long weekend of women's SBL action sees the round tip-off with three big matches on Thursday including a battle of unbeaten teams before concluding with another cracking contest pitting the Flames up against the Hawks on Monday.

With the Magic, Slammers, Tigers and Flames all looking to remain unbeaten so far in 2015, and the Eagles and Lightning looking to record their first victories, that is only a few of the reasons why it looks to be a fascinating weekend of action.

The Week 4 women's SBL action begins with the three contests on Thursday night and each of them tips off at 6.30pm with the Joondalup Wolves taking on the Stirling Senators at Joondalup Basketball Stadium, the Mandurah Magic facing the South West Slammers at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre and the Willetton Tigers hosting the Lakeside Lightning at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

The league then takes a break over Good Friday before resuming on Saturday evening with the Cockburn Cougars playing the Rockingham Flames at Wally Hagan Stadium at 6pm, and then at 6.30pm the Perth Redbacks host the East Perth Eagles at Curtin Stadium.

And then finally on Monday at midday, the Rockingham Flames take on the Perry Lakes Hawks at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

Starting on Thursday night, the Wolves take on the Senators at Joondalup with both teams looking to build some momentum in the new season.

Both teams had good reason to expect to be around the mark in 2015 but so far have just one win on the board apiece after three rounds. That's not such a big deal for the Wolves who have played just two games with the bye last weekend.

Before that, Joondalup lost to Willetton to start the season before thumping the Kalamunda Eastern Suns by 43 points a fortnight ago.

Meanwhile, the Senators have won just one of four games this season and now will need to find a way to overcome the Lady Wolfpack to avoid slipping to 1-4 after four rounds.

Two of the four unbeaten teams in the competition also do battle on Thursday night when the Magic host the Slammers in Mandurah.

The Magic have opened the new season with strong wins over the Suns, Senators, Hawks and Redbacks including handing Perry Lakes its first loss of the season last weekend.

With Casey Mihovilovich, Briana Klasztorny and Ashlee Sidebottom, in particular, starting the season well, it is a strong looking Magic line-up.

However, the Slammers have also been outstanding so far in 2015 beating the Lightning, Eagles, Senators and Suns with Deanica McCormick making a huge impression to open her SBL career averaging 24.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.8 steals a game.

The third of the Thursday night fixtures pits the Tigers up against the Lightning and the two teams could not have made more contrasting starts to the season.

Willetton has started unbeaten winning its opening three matches while Lakeside is yet to record a win in three attempts coming off last year's grand final appearance. It now appears the Lightning certainly have their work cut out to head into Easter anything but winless.

The action then resumes on Saturday evening with the Cougars and Flames doing battle in what should be another tremendous contest.

Rockingham has started its championship defence in impressive fashion with wins over the Eagles and Redbacks.

However, both those teams occupied the bottom two positions in 2014 so now the Flames will be truly tested for the first time in 2015 on Saturday night by a Cougars team who have won three of five matches this year, and are remarkably well led by playing-coach Deanna Smith.

The Redbacks and Eagles then also do battle on Saturday night. The two teams only combined to win four games between them in all of 2014, but both have shown signs of improvement in 2015 already.

The Redbacks have recorded one win in their four games so far this season, thrashing the Lightning 68-36, while the Eagles have still yet to win and have now lost 21 straight matches, but have been vastly more competitive already under new coach Narelle Henry.

And finally the round concludes on Monday afternoon with another terrific contest between the Flames and Hawks.

Rockingham will be coming off its match with Cockburn on Saturday while Perry Lakes will be making its only appearance of the weekend and are looking to bounce back from their first loss of the season last week to the Magic.

WEEK 4 WOMEN'S SBL FIXTURES
THURSDAY
Joondalup Wolves v Stirling Senators, Joondalup Basketball Stadium 6.30pm
Mandurah Magic v South West Slammers, Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre 6.30pm
Willetton Tigers v Lakeside Lightning, Willetton Basketball Stadium 6.30pm

SATURDAY
Cockburn Cougars v Rockingham Flames, Wally Hagan Stadium 6pm
Perth Redbacks v East Perth Eagles, Curtin Stadium 6.30pm

MONDAY
Rockingham Flames v Perry Lakes Hawks, Mike Barnett Sports Complex 12pm

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Kerry Leeder